Top Karst Caves in China and Cave Photography Tips

China has the largest areas of karst landscape with more than 160 tourism caves. Here are the most beautiful and representative caves in China and some cave photography tips.

Top 10 China Caves

Reef Flute Cave (桂林芦笛岩）

The Reed Flute Cave is located in the northwest suburb area, 5 kilometers from the central city. It is a scenic spot mainly offering karst cave and pastoral scenery landscape for visitors to sightsee and appreciate. There are plenty of stalagmites, stalactites, peristeles, stone curtains and stone flowers in different shapes, composing the landscape of Morning Glow at the Lion Mountain, the Red Curtain, the Panlong Pagoda, the old-growth forest, the Crystal Palace, Mountain of Flowers and Fruits and many other sceneries.

All the landscapes form the fairyland, enjoying a reputation of the Art Palace of the Nature. Also, the fantastic nature makes a good place for the shutterbugs to record the beautiful landscape. In addition to the karst landscape in the cave, visitors can also see the frescos dating from the Tang Dynasty. In the Reef Flute Cave scenic spot there are restaurants, tea houses, waterside pavilions, lakes, curved bridges and tourism boats for visitors.

Zhijin Cave, Guizhou (贵州织金洞）

Zhijin Cave discovered in 1980, located 120 kilometers from Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou. The cave extending for 6.6 kilometers is one of the most beautiful caves in China. There are more than 120 different crystalline formations in the cave’s interior along with stalactites. Silver Rain Tree is a 17 meters tall and rare flower-like transparent crystal.
In this 3 layers cave, there are more than 40 types of Karst limestone formations. 47 Halls and 150 attractions dot this 30, 000 square kilometers cave. It measures 150 meters at its highest and 173 at its widest and average high of it is 50 meters.Tips: 1. Avoid touching sedimentary rock, which are very fragile;
Walking slowly to appreciate fantastic scene;
Zhijin County is a multi-ethnic minority county. There are more than 40 Tiaohuapo assemblies attracting thousands of people.
Add: Guanzhai Township, Zhijin Town, Guizhou (贵州省织金县官寨乡)
Opening hours: 08:30 to 17:30 from March 1 to November 30; 09:00 to 17:00 from December 1 to the following year February 28
Entrance Fee: 120 yuan from March 1 to November 30; 100 from December 1 to the following year February 28
Recommended Guizhou Tour

Huanglong Karst Cave （张家界黄龙洞）

Yellow Dragon Cave is located in the Wulingyuan scenic spot, the core scenic spot in Zhangjiajie City in Hunan. It is one of the most beautiful karst caves in China. The karst cave consists of stereoscopic karst cave structure, broad dragon temple hall, tens of thousands of stalagmite, tall in-karst cave waterfall and touring route on both water and land. In the karst cave, visitors can see large number of karst caves and rivers located in the big Huanglong Karst Cave.

The Stalactites, stalagmites, stone pillars, rock flowers, stone curtain, helictite, stone, stone pearls and stone corals congealed of the calcareous solution can be seen all the way in the karst cave, making it seems to be a ‘demon palace’ under the ground. Bruinen River, Loess Plateau, Fairy Waterfalls, Labyrinth, Sky Column Street, Mountain of Flowers and Fruits and some other wonderful spectacles can been seen in the karst cave and they are suitable to take photos from different angles.
Add: Zhangqinggong Road, Wulingyuan District, Zhangjiajie city, Hunan Province.
地址：张家界市武陵源区张清公路。
Opening hours: 07:30-17:30 from March 1 to Novemer 30; 08:00-17:30 from December 1 to February 28.
Entrance Fee: 80 yuan
Recommended visiting hours: 2 hours

Benxi Water Cave （辽宁本溪水洞）

Benxi Water Tunnel is located in the Benxi City of Liaoning Province. It consists of six scenic spots of Water Cave, Hot Spring Temple, Tang Furrow, Guanmen Hill, Tiesha and the Hill behind the Temple, covering an area of 44.72 square kilometers. Benxi water tunnel is a large water filling cavity formed hundreds of thousands of years ago. Accumulate over a long period, it gradually developed into today's tunnel. This kind of dissolution is still continuing.

Visitors can see different landscapes in the six different scenic spots. The stalactites like corn, jade elephant and Snow Mountain in the water cave; the ancient well, vauclusian spring and pools in the drought cave; the “first drift in Northeast of China” gives visitors an exciting drift travel; the performance of domesticate crocodile in the Crocodile Garden; the geological relic and specimen in the Benxi Geological Museum and the birthplace of Taoism in northeast China, Tiesha Hill scenic spot.
Location: east suburb of Benxi City. Liaoning province
地址：辽宁省本溪市东郊.
Opening hours: 08:30-16:00
Entrance Fee: 135 yuan
Recommended visiting hours: 2 hours

Tenglong Cave，Hubei (湖北腾龙洞）

Tenglong Cave is 6 kilometers from Lichuan city. It is one of China’s biggest caves. The height of cave entrance is about 74 meters and weight is 65 meters. Over 300 caves distribute in 5 floors in Tenglong Cave. Hills, water, caves and and stone forests make up a marvelous scene. It is famous for its grand, elegant, odd and pretty sceneries. The main cave has 52.8 kilometers long . There are 5 peaks, more than 10 falls and 10 halls in the cave. The highest fall reaches 23 meters. Caves hide in hills and hills hide in caves. Temperature in the cave is about 15 centigrade degree all year long.

Guizhou Dragon Palace （贵州龙宫）

Guizhou Dragon Palace is located in the south suburb of Anshun City, Guizhou. It is the neighbor of the Huangguoshu waterfalls. The Dragon Palace covers an area of 60 square meters, divided into four scenic spots containing the center of the scenic spot, Xuan Pond, Oilseed Rape Lake and the Immortal Bamboos. Visitors can see waterfalls, needle karst, streams and stone forest in the cave.

Guizhou Dragon Palace is praised as the Great Miracle of the Big Nature. It is one of the most essential golden scenic spots in Guizhou Province. The scenic spot owns the deepest and the most beautiful water karst cave and multi-type karst landscapes, the biggest karst cave family hall for worshipping the Buddha, the biggest waterfall in the cave and the most and the most concentrated water and drought karst cave.

Furong Karst Cave （重庆芙蓉洞）

Furong Karst Cave (Lotus Karst Cave) is located in the Wulong County in Chongqing. Chongqing is known as the City of Hills in China. Furong Karst Cave is a large scale limestone cave forming in the quaternary Pleistocene, developing in dolomite limestone in the ancient Cambrian system. It covers an area of 37,000 square meters. The grandest sight is the Brilliant Hall is 1,000 square meters. The maximum static and visitor capacity is 185,000 people, enjoying the reputation of one of the World Three Caves.

The main attractions in the cave are the Golden Halls, the Leifeng Pagoda, the Jade Chopstick Prop up the Sky, the Flowers in the Jade Forest, the Crystal Flowers, the One Thousand Kiss, the Animal Kingdom, the Dragon Palace under the Sea, the Giant-screen Waterfall, the Pearls in the Stone Field and so on. Walking in the cave makes the person feel the magical creature of nature

Xueyu Karst Cave （重庆雪玉洞）

Xueyu Karst Cave (Snow Jade Cave) is also located in the City of Hills, Chongqing. It is the boutique of the karst cave group of Longhe scenic spot and is the youngest karst cave among the developed caves in China. 80% of the stalactites in the cave are white like snow and pure like jade. So the cave is named Snow Jade Karst Cave be Professor Zhu Xuewen, the Chairman of the Karst Cave Association

There are three world rare-seen in the cave. The first one is the rare-seen “snow world” in the cave, because the stalactites are white like snow. The second one is the rare-seen fast growing “rosebud” of the cave in the world. The third one is the rare-seen landscape in the cave is incredible. Also, there are four world’s “most” in the cave waiting for the visitors to find out.
Recommended Chongqing Tour

Tips for Shooting in the Karst Cave

1. It is better to get everything ready in advance before shooting in the karst cave. The single lens reflex camera with the photometry inside is the best choice. To choose the caliber of the lens, the bigger means better. If the zoom lens with wide-angle is available, you have got the best condition. Because the light in the cave is dim, an electric torch is useful for providing lighting in order to shoot a satisfying photo.

2. In general, there are colorful decorated light in the cave. If the lens is towards the light, the picture will be very dark or will be black. So take care to avoid light direct opposite the lens when shooting and take advantage of the lens hood.

3. It is right the place in the cave to use the flash lamp because the ray of light is dim. If the condition permits, please take as more as possible and match with the Synchronous Sensor. The humidity in the karst cave is high, with the addition of there is absolute temperature difference between inside and outside the cave, when the camera is taken into the cave, the lens will be covered with a layer of water vapor. The best way to prevent is to seal camera with a plastic bag before getting into the cave and take out after 30 minutes.

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